Recommended

I recently tasted a bunch of zinfandels from various parts of California, and 15 of them are listed below with brief notes on each. They are listed in ascending order according to price, and 10 of the 15 ring up for $26 or less. Start tasting. The Fourth will be here before you know it.

Made of 100 percent zinfandel from several California appellations, this wine offered baking spices, plum, rich blackberry, vanilla and cherry. Silky and luscious, it was a joy to drink and well worth the price.

From Mendocino County, this wine is a blend of 77 percent zinfandel, with petite sirah and syrah. It offered baking spices, black cherry and other dark fruits, an herbal quality and vanilla, plus a potent 15.5 percent alcohol.

Drawing from several Lodi vineyards, with vines averaging 86 years old, this wine had a silky mouthfeel that delivered jammy berries and dark fruit, herbs, damp earth, cigar box and a mocha finish.

A Sonoma County wine, this one was full of luscious blueberry and black fruits, plus nutmeg, baking spices, vanilla, herbs and black pepper on the finish. Texturally, this lip-smacking wine was soft and mouth-filling.

Floral, with plum, dark fruits, ripe dark cherry, cranberry, leather, black pepper and chocolate, this 95 percent zinfandel/5 percent petite sirah blend had a velvety mouthfeel. It hails from Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County’s renowned zinfandel region.

$22 $16 $19 $48 $17 $22

Using Sonoma Mountain fruit and composed of 99 percent zinfandel (and 1 percent syrah), this one offered plum, tobacco, smoke, black cherry, cocoa, cedar and tangy raspberry, plus 14.5 percent alcohol.

Bursting with baking spices, this Paso Robles wine had notes of plum and blackberry with a streak of bright raspberry. The fruit was joined by suggestions of herbs, dried pine needles, vanilla and dark chocolate.

From Sonoma County, here is a wine with strong herbal notes, along with dark, juicy fruits, including ripe plum and blackberry. The wine also had a distinct brightness and freshness to balance its ripeness.

$22 $25 $49 $22 $26 $39 $40 $22

Another one from Dry Creek Valley. This incredibly silky wine had jammy fruit, including blackberry and plum, plus floral notes, spice, cocoa powder, black pepper and 15.1 percent alcohol.

This Lodi wine was bursting with incense, raspberry, smoke, herbs, baking spices, jammy dark berries, anise and black pepper. Its many layers led to an evolving and satisfyingly slow-developing finish.

From Napa Valley, this wine was floral with black fruit, black licorice, herbs and a lighter body. Made of 79 percent zinfandel, it was easy to drink — almost refreshing — and clocks in at a reasonable-for-zinfandel 13.6 percent alcohol.

Brimming with blackberry, plum and smoke, plus spice, black pepper and chocolate on the finish, this Napa Valley wine comes from the winery that won the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 with its chardonnay.

From a legendary zinfandel producer in Dry Creek Valley, this zinfandel-dominant blend was full of dark fruit, herbs, smoke and a bright streak of acidity, plus spice and zesty black pepper on its long finish.

$30

This Napa Valley offering gave up strawberry, blueberry, black cherry, vanilla and cedar. Its zingy acidity and grippy tannins make it a great wine for just about anything hot off the grill.

Dark fruits, raspberry, black olive and fig combined with eucalyptus, a whiff of sassafras and black pepper in this beauty. Complex and continually developing, this silky wine hails from Shenandoah Valley.